Sihanoukville, Cambodia – January 21th – 24th, 2017

Besides the obvious excitement about spending some quality time with the fam, one of the things we were most looking forward to was increasing our standard of living for a week. However, our first “resort” with the Schmidt family was… authentic rather than luxurious. Although the family that ran the beach “resort” were warm and welcoming, the beach bungalows were more like run down shacks with linoleum flooring and cockroach friends. Oh well, the price was right, and the Schmidts got a truly authentic Cambodian experience, with the added bonus of no running water most of the time. In good news, the ocean was literally five steps in front of our bungalow and the white noise audio came free of charge!

Rather than stay in Sihanoukville proper, which has the reputation for being a backpacker party town, we stayed at Otres Beach, about 10 km away. Although nothing like the scenery at Sunset Beach on Koh RongSamloem, the beach was beautiful and we were surrounded by tasty restaurants galore. The major downside to having bungalows right on the beach was that we were constantly being pestered by Cambodian sales people. It felt like every 10 seconds we were saying, “No thank you,” to bracelets, massages, pedicures, key chains, fruit, seafood, excursions, etc. etc. etc. In good news, true to Cambodians good-nature, most of the time they took no for an answer and moved on to the next tourist (who wasn’t hard to find, they were several feet from us in all directions, all the time).  

Otres Beach.

Andy attempting to do supermans (a workout exercise) while a dog sits on his head (top-left), the Schmidt family enjoying lunch (top-right), our beach shack (bottom-left), and the view from our beach shack at sunset (bottom-right).

Drinks, abs workouts, and Dandy at sunset.

In addition to the obvious activities of relaxing at the beach, eating, and getting twice daily massages, we rented a private longtail boat for a day and toured the surrounding islands. We snorkeled, fished, and stopped for lunch on a neighboring island. The snorkeling was really good and Thomas, Denise, and Lillian all caught fish with our water bottle fishing poles! Yes, the fish were about 2 inches long each, but that’s not the point! On our last night in Sihanoukville, we ventured into town for dinner at a NGO which employees and trains underprivileged kids in the hospitality/tourist industry. The food and service were outstanding! It was the perfect way to wrap up a couple days of great company and fun in the sun! 

Boat trip to the surrounding islands.

Lillian on the swing on the beach in front of our "resort" (left), the lions at the traffic circle in Sihanoukville (top-right), and a mystery fruit tree (bottom-right).